When Hunt Regional Healthcare closed its freestanding emergency departments in Commerce and Quinlan, the most common explanation circulating in Hunt County was that “too many people were using the ER for minor issues.”
Records released to KETR by Hunt Regional through a Texas Public Information Act (TPIA) request suggest a more complex picture.
The Data
Every emergency visit in Texas is coded using the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) system, which classifies the medical complexity of care provided.
These codes range from Level 1 (minor, low-severity issues) to Level 5 (critical, potentially life-threatening emergencies)…